{"id":199474,"date":"2025-10-09T04:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199474\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:19:08","slug":"carlos-sainz-complains-about-tv-broadcast-coverage-of-girlfriends-and-celebrities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199474\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz complains about TV broadcast coverage of girlfriends and celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams Formula 1<\/a> driver Carlos Sainz<\/a> has hit out at the sport’s TV broadcast, saying that the vision has trended towards focusing on ‘celebrities and girlfriends’, rather than on-track racing. <\/p>\n

Sainz’ accusation comes off the back of his monumental drive from the back of the grid to 10th at the Singapore Grand Prix<\/a> after a disappointing disqualification in qualifying.<\/p>\n

At a track well renowned for being difficult to overtake at; the lone world feed focused on celebrity reaction rather than the racing, including cutting to Sainz’ own girlfriend, model Rebecca Donaldson, during his drive.<\/p>\n

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The battle for second between McLaren’s Lando Norris<\/a> and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen<\/a>also took precedence over battles at the back of the pack.<\/p>\n

\"Williams<\/p>\n

Williams Racing driver #55 Carlos Sainz (ESP) and Rebecca Donaldson are in the paddock at the 2025 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. \u00a0NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“Last weekend they didn’t show any of the four of five overtakes I did at the end. Nor did they show Fernando [Alonso]<\/a>‘s pursuit of Lewis [Hamilton]<\/a>,” said Sainz on the Spanish radio station El Partidazo de COPE.<\/p>\n

“They missed a lot of things.<\/p>\n

“It’s becoming a bit of a trend, which must have worked for them once upon a time when people found it interesting to see our girlfriends, to see famous people on TV, the reactions.<\/p>\n

“I understand that if there is an overtake, a very tense moment in the race, it is understandable that the production team might want to show a reaction shot if they have seen that it has worked in the past.<\/p>\n

“But [only] if the competition is respected and you are always showing the important moments of the race.”<\/p>\n

\"Ferrari's<\/p>\n

Ferrari’s Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (R) poses with a supporter before the awarding ceremony of the Qualifying session of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix.\u00a0Xinhua News Agency via Getty Ima<\/p>\n

With the unprecedented surge of fans and excitement following the release of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, drivers and their significant others have become increasingly well-known beyond the sphere of motorsport.<\/p>\n

Celebrities have flocked to the sport for mere glimpses of fame on the F1 TV broadcast and drivers are finding themselves mobbed any time they leave the team hospitality or garage.<\/p>\n

“The other [reactions on the broadcast] are fine but don’t lose sight of the main thing. For me, they go overboard a little showing the celebrities and girlfriends,” Sainz admitted.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes there are so many VIPs in the paddock you can’t even walk.<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/p>\n

Martin Garrix during the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 05, 2025 in Singapore, Singapore. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“We move by bike or scooter [in the paddock] because if you don’t, you just can’t get around.”<\/p>\n

In retaliation to Sainz’s scathing critique of the world feed broadcast, an F1 spokesperson argued that the brand “[focuses] on giving our fans the best possible footage of the race and never compromise the key focus – the racing on track.”<\/p>\n

“Our team does a great job of covering a highly complex situation with multiple cars at different points on a track and also provide great context moments of the grandstands, high profile guests and the locations we race at.<\/p>\n

“We are always in pursuit of excellence and improvement in what we deliver.”<\/p>\n

Formula 1 moves next to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz has hit out at the sport’s TV broadcast, saying that the vision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-199474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}